Submitted Alayna Westcom, Miss Vermont, and Sophia Parker, Miss Vermont’s Outstanding Teen 2015. Do you know someone who has what it takes to be the next Miss Vermont or Miss Vermont’s Outstanding Teen? This spring, Miss Vermont 2015, Alayna Westcom of Bakersfield, and Miss Vermont’s Outstanding Teen 2015, Sophia Parker of Addison, will be ready…

Chart courtesy of REMAX New England REMAX reports on October residential housing sales The residential market in New England remained steady through October 2015, with a modest 3.8 percent increase in sales over October 2014. Across the region, pending sales were up 12.3 percent while average days on market decreased by nearly 11 percent. Month-over-month,…

Submitted One of the old street signs being auctioned off after West Rutland replaced them with larger and more reflective ones. (No more need to swipe them!) WEST RUTLAND—Need a one-of-a-kind holiday gift? The town of West Rutland is auctioning off their inventory of old road signs. Due to new federal regulations, all town road…

Submitted Mrs. Mee’s third grade class at Rutland Intermediate School with their dictionaries RUTLAND—Call it a Rotary lesson in literacy. For the past 14 years, Rutland South Rotary Club has donated brand new dictionaries to all third-graders in eight schools within the Rutland region. These are personal dictionaries they can use in school or at…

Vermont’s emoji highlights a relatively new trend Just in time for the holidays, Hotwire has announced the top travel and leisure emoji used state by state. From the ever popular “tent” in Wyoming to “snowflakes” in Montana and Alaska and “tropical drink” in Hawaii, the data offers a fun, industry-wide read that shows that consumers…

By Robin Alberi Students at Killington Elementary School enjoy a Thanksgiving Day feast at lunch last week. All helped out with the meal, serving students and adults (including parents) the holiday meal. Students were encouraged to sample a variety of foods and to learn abou the history of the Thanksgiving Day meal, including why many…

LUDLOW — The staff of Black River Good Neighbor Services (BRGNS) has announced that they are accepting applications for the 2015 holiday food basket program. They ask that completed applications be submitted by Dec. 1, 2015. Executive Director Audrey Bridge and her staff are eager to see that no person or family goes without food, and…

Courtesy of Rutland Regional Medical Center Gerianne M. Smart RUTLAND—Rutland Regional Medical Center, the second-largest healthcare facility in Vermont, announced Friday, Nov. 20, that Gerianne Smart has been named the manager of marketing and public relations. Smart brings extensive experience and expertise in marketing and public relations, as well as strategic planning, process improvement and…

In response to requests from certified organic producers to help increase demand for organic products in the marketplace, Vermont Organic Farmers (VOF) has developed a collection of outreach materials that explain and support the organic certification process and promote organic products. The materials include a series of short videos for consumers that convey the benefits…

By Lani Duke Youth, alcohol, college and sports collide Castleton police officers arrested an 18-year-old Castleton University football player in the early morning of November 8. Doing so required more effort than the usual amount of force: three Taser shots, pepper spray, intervention by a civilian bystander and backup from two other agencies. Charbonnier and…

By Lani Duke Hundreds hired for the holidays The week after Thanksgiving and the remainder leading up to Christmas are the busiest time of year for the Vermont Country Store in Clarendon. To fill all those holiday orders the store hires more than 500 additional employees, split about evenly between the distribution center and the call…

On Nov. 21 at 12:40 a.m., Vermont State Police in Royalton received a call about a single vehicle accident on Route 12A in Braintree. The operator, Spencer Brown, was taken to Gifford Medical Center for minor injuries. One of Brown’s passengers, Joseph Wheatley, age 22, was airlifted by DHART (helicopter) to Dartmouth with serious but…

KILLINGTON — On Saturday, Nov. 21, at 5:30 a.m. Rutland State Police were called to a report of a vehicle overturned in a brook off Route 4 at Mission Farm Road in the town of Killington. Upon arrival troopers met with local rescue agencies to determine that Jonathan Green, 53 of Melrose, Mass., had driven off…

Selectboard concerns Chairwoman Patty McGrath addressed citizen questions and misinformation raised regarding Article 5, the highway bond authorization of $1.4 million, voted on at the 2014 Town Meeting.  Citizens at the previous meeting falsely alleged that the bond was supposed to cover the paving of Killington Road from Route 4 to Dean Hill and speculated…

Photo submitted Kelly Rohan A new study published online Nov. 5 in the American Journal of Psychiatry casts a shadow on light therapy’s status as the gold standard for treating SAD, or seasonal affective disorder. While the treatment is effective at addressing acute episodes of SAD, a SAD-tailored version of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is…